The blue walls that kept Aegis’ party separated from Mikael’s dropped, and Aegis’ party took a few steps forward in a standard formation. Aegis held his shield up, with Pyri and Darkshot standing behind him on either side with their spells and attacks ready. Lina and Rakkan spread out to his left and right, respectively, walking at a pace that matched Aegis’.
Mikael’s party, on the other hand, walked forward casually through the center of the arena, weapons lowered.
“What’re they doing?” Aegis asked Rakkan.
“Dunno, they don’t act like this usually…” Rakkan replied.
“Renault! That’s you, right?” Mikael shouted as he and his team looked at Rakkan’s real body, ignoring his three echoes.
“Yeah. It’s me.” Rakkan replied.
Mikael sighed. “Don’t look like a battlemaster…”
Mightymira smiled and hopped excitedly. “Good to see you again!” Mightymira cheered.
“What is this, a trick?” Darkshot whispered to Rakkan.
“I don’t think so… let me talk to them for a sec,” Rakkan replied, glancing between Darkshot and Aegis. Aegis nodded back at him hesitantly while letting up his defensive stance and lowering his shield.“I decided on this class instead… It suited my playstyle better.” Rakkan answered Mikael.
“You think it’s strong enough to stop Seraxus?” Mikael asked him curiously.
Rakkan looked to his echoes briefly. “I hope so…”
Mikael eyed him carefully as he stopped moving forward near the center of the arena. “Hm.” Aegis’ group stopped a dozen or so meters away from them. “But you teamed up with this guy…” Mikael motioned to Aegis without breaking eye contact with Rakkan. “You know who he is, right?”
“You guys gonna fight or what? I’m waiting to shoutcast over here!” Hae-won’s voice, amplified, echoed across the stadium as the crowds began cheering along with her. She was pacing around the edge of the arena. Aegis waved his hands at her in a shushing motion, causing her to huff back in annoyance.
“Yeah. I know who he is.” Rakkan nodded back.
“Then you know that it’s ‘cause of him that Seraxus got off of Puagas?”
“That’s not what happened…” Rakkan replied.
“Yeah? Are you sure about that? That guy over there,” Mikael pointed into the stands where the Sages of Destiny guild were sitting, specifically at Makaroth, Lilya, and Calikgos, who sat amongst them, “That’s his dad, VGN’s top dog. I’m willin’ to bet he had Seraxus flown off of Puagas personally, to set up this big show.
Calikgos shook his head dismissively. “Wild accusations of imaginative teenagers. Why in the hell would we do something like that?" He spoke to Makaroth’s large audience, who could hear the conversation in the arena.
“Yeah! We just showed up for his birthday and were luckily able to stop Seraxus. We had nothing to do with how he got there.” Lilya shrugged with forced innocence.
“Ignore them, they’re just angry they haven’t been able to stop Seraxus themselves up until now,” Makaroth added.
“Aegis didn’t have anything to do with that, though,” Rakkan replied on Aegis’s behalf, speaking to Mikael.
Mikael crossed his arms. “How can you be sure? He could just be playing the long con, putting on a big show for VGN. I’ve seen the offers they give people to work for them, officially and unofficially.”
“Aegis would never do that. He’s here for the same reasons we are.”
“We are…” Mikael shook his head and began pacing around in front of his team. “I’ve seen some clips of you playing on his stream recently. I’m not even sure you’re still the same boy who left us on Puagas. When were you planning to come back?”
“As soon as I was strong enough to beat him.”
“And you’re strong enough now?”
“I hope so.”
“And what if you aren’t? What if we beat you here, and you don’t make it past this round? Would you be willing to give up that shield, Harbinger of Light? So that we might stand a chance against Seraxus?”
“If you can beat us, it’s yours,” Aegis replied without hesitation, and the murmuring of the crowds in the arena quickly quieted down. “If anyone beats us and proves they’re stronger, I’ll hand over the shield. I don’t care about winning, I care about stopping Seraxus,” Aegis locked eyes with Mikael.
Mikael stopped pacing, scratching his chin briefly while looking to the ground as if wondering about something. “Tell your companions to step back, and raise up your shield.” He said as if he’d come to a conclusion, and simultaneously began to draw out his large greatsword from off his back.
Aegis hesitated, not sure what Mikael was planning just yet, and carefully eyed Mikael’s companions. He watched as they all backed away from Mikael and kept their weapons lower, giving no sense of trickery or aggression. “Alright. Back up, guys. I guess he wants to do a one-on-one.”
“Are you sure?” Lina asked, as Pyri let out a bored sigh.
Aegis nodded back at her as Darkshot, Rakkan, and Pyri were already backing away. Lina was the last to follow suit. Mikael bent his knees into a fighting stance, preparing himself to lunge forward toward Aegis’ shield.
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Seeing his stance, Aegis raised his shield and braced his legs, digging his feet into the sand that covered the tiled arena floor.
“Not a one-on-one. A single attack. Block it.” Mikael said.
Aegis furled his brow from behind his shield. “To what end?” This prompted Mikael to smirk. He charged forward with incredible speed and deliberately aimed for Aegis’ shield, swinging the sword horizontally to crash into the side of it. The impact caused a loud clanging sound to reverberate across the arena.
You take 1936 slashing damage.
Aegis was able to properly brace the attack, reducing it to a very low number despite the power that Mikael had put into the swing. After the attack ended, Mikael jumped backwards to create distance between himself and Aegis and stood staring at him.
“That was it?” Aegis asked him curiously. Mikael lowered his sword.
Mikael shrugged and eyed Aegis with a curious squint.“Yep. Now tell me, how am I feeling?”
“Huh?” Aegis replied, confused.
“My emotion. What is it?”
“I don’t know… You seem pretty calm, I guess?” Aegis shrugged. Mikael sighed in annoyance. “Focus. I will give you another chance.” Mikael raised his greatsword again.
“Chance for what?”
“Aegis!” Rakkan shouted to him, drawing his eyes away from Mikael for a moment. It was when he looked at Rakkan that it clicked in his head what Mikael was looking for. Aegis was able to look back at Mikael just in time to brace another powerful swing of Mikael’s greatsword as it crashed against his shield.
You take 1980 slashing damage.
Mikael jumped backwards again, creating the same gap between them.
“Now?” Mikael asked him curiously.
“You’re filled with anger. Not just for Seraxus, but for everyone here. Even me…” Aegis concluded, feeling emotions seeping out of Mikael. It was weird to Aegis that he could even answer the question, but it wasn't the first time. Somehow, the game was sending this information to him in the same way his skills had assisted him with crafting. His only immediate explanation for it was that the Light of Eirene skill was responsible.
“Good. You’ve got it too.” Mikael nodded.
Aegis looked at him for clarification.“Got what?”
“This can’t be the first time you noticed it, right? Whenever you block or parry attacks from an opponent, you can feel a singular emotion that they are emitting?”
“Well… yeah, I’ve noticed it. I’ve used it before…” Aegis lowered his shield as he saw Mikael sheath his greatsword again.
“The first time I noticed it, I thought it was weird. I parried some attacks from a few goblins and could sense their desperation. I thought it might’ve been battlesense, from a class skill, but after talking with other players, none of them knew what I was talking about…” Mikael explained. “In addition, I didn’t understand the point behind it. Why would I need to feel the emotion of an enemy attacking me? It very rarely helped me win the encounter. But, since I saw your Hrath’mir quest, and have seen your explanations on how the Avatars work in this game, I understood its purpose. I’ve also understood who is given this ability. Players who stay devoted to their divine god and remain on the path required to obtain their unique classes.”
Aegis was skeptical about his theory, but considered it. “The ability to feel emotions?”
“Precisely. Anything that attacks us, we can tell how they’re feeling. It’s so that we can react appropriately to try and reduce their negative emotions. It's tricky gameplay to navigate.” Mikael replied. “Can you guess the emotion I’ve felt when parrying Seraxus’ sword of hatred?”
“Probably hatred?” Darkshot asked sarcastically, jumping into the exchange.
Mikael chuckled while shaking his head. “Surprisingly, no.”
“What is it, then?” Rakkan asked.
“Aegis will need to understand it himself. If I tell him now, he might get weird ideas.”
“Then what’s the point of this exchange? Why bring this all up?” Pyri asked curiously, tapping her foot impatiently.
“I wanted to confirm that Aegis understood how the game mechanic worked before I made my next request.” Mikael locked eyes with Aegis once more and drew out his greatsword. “Renault says you are not here to put on a show. You say you are here to defeat Seraxus at all costs, but… words can be lies. The sim-box’s ability to read your true feelings cannot be so easily manipulated. Hit me, with everything you’ve got.” Mikael declared, taking a fighting stance with his greatsword held in front of himself, ready to parry.
Aegis unstrapped his shield from his left arm and fastened it to his back, readying the claws on both of his hands for attack. All eyes fell onto Aegis as the stadium went quiet, having been listening to the conversation of Mikael and Aegis’ groups intently.
Aegis took a deep breath and lowered his head, trying to clear his mind. Thoughts began to seep in, despite his best efforts to keep it clear. He was reminded of how Seraxus had attacked Rene, killed Farlion, and consumed the soul of Snowflake. He remembered Makaroth pretending to show up and save them from Seraxus. He remembered his angry outburst as he yelled at his friends and nearly quit the game. He recalled the hoops he had to jump through to get qualified, because VGN claimed all the standard sign-up spots. The shattered pirates' attack on Kalmoore, and the betrayal of Christoph and Artaphernes - the footage of Seraxus tearing through Tarolas and killing countless innocent players and NPCs. Finally, though, he recalled the feeling he felt when he did this exact same test on Rakkan, after they’d first met - the guilt that was behind Rakkan’s attacks due to his being unable to stop Seraxus.
All of these thoughts built up inside of Aegis, forming a singular emotion to be perceived by his sim-box. Aegis himself wasn’t even sure what the motion would be, but he was sure it would at the very least be how he really felt about this entire situation, and he held onto those thoughts as he charged forward towards Mikael’s sword and slashed out at it with his claws.
A loud clash of metal echoed throughout the otherwise quiet arena as Mikael parried the strike, then jumped back away from Aegis. Following it, Aegis let out a set of several deep breaths, doing his best to keep his face from showing any emotion.
Mikael didn’t need to look at Aegis’ face, though - thanks to his divine ability to feel emotions, he knew how Aegis was feeling. He looked on at Aegis in disbelief briefly, shaking his head in bewilderment before letting out an elongated sigh.
Mikael briefly turned to look up at Makaroth in the stands. “We’re lucky that Seraxus is holding the Sword of Hatred, and not the Sword of Anger.” Makaroth was glaring back down in Aegis’ direction. “He’s the real deal. Rakkan found himself a powerful ally. Just like we agreed, guys,” Mikael turned to his party with a defeated shrug.
“Alright.” Jeremax nodded, then opened up his interface to press a few buttons.
“Combatant Jeremax has forfeited the match.”
“Huh?” Aegis blurted out when he heard the announcer's message.
“We’ve already tried to stop him and have been unsuccessful. We could try to beat you and stop you here, but honestly, it’d be against our best interest. You guys have a much better shot at stopping him than we do. We only needed to be sure you were serious about it.” Mikael replied.
“Good seeing you again, Renault!” Mightymira waved before she too forfeited the match.
Pyri rolled her eyes with bored disappointment. “C’mon, seriously?”
The audience from the VGN side of the arena booed loudly.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Hae-won muttered. “The winners of the final match of round one of the Gladiator Tournament are Team Aegis!” Hae-won cheered with forced enthusiasm.